The Philippines and Japan have officially signed the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA), allowing both countries to send military forces to each other's territory for joint drills.

In a ceremonial signing witnessed by President Marcos in Malacañan on Monday morning, July 8, the RAA was signed by Defense Secretary Gilbero Teodoro and Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikawa Yoko.

In his remarks before the signing of the RAA, Marcos said he was glad to witness the fruition of the agreement which the two countries have been working very hard for.

He added that the event signifies Japan's commitment to its relationship with the Philippines.

"Your presence here increases our confidence in the importance that the Japanese government puts on these extremely important agreements that we have. I'm very glad that we have come to this day," he told Kamikawa and Japanese Defense Minister Kihara Minoru during their courtesy call.

For her part, Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikawa said the signing of the RAA was a "great achievement" for both countries as she noted Japan's intention to boost its ties with the Philippines.

"Japan and the Philippines have made concrete progress in a wide range of areas of cooperation. In particular, the fact that we are able to sign the RAA today is a great achievement," she said.

"To maintain and strengthen a free and open international order based on the rule of law, we would like to strengthen our partnership under Your Excellency's leadership," she added.

Meanwhile, Japanese Defense Minister Kihara said he would work with his Filipino counterpart to enhance the defense ties between the two countries toward realizing a peaceful region.

"The signature of the Reciprocal Access Agreement today represents the cooperative relationship our two nations enjoy, and I welcome this new development which reinforces the effectiveness of our defense cooperation," he said.

"I am committed to working with my good colleague, [Defense] Secretary [Gilberto] Teodoro, to further enhance our defense cooperation and exchanges in order to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific," he added.

The RAA with Japan is a commitment made at the inaugural PH-Japan Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting or 2+2 in April 2022. The 2+2 meeting is the highest consultative mechanism to deepen security and defense policy coordination and security cooperation between the two countries.

The first formal negotiations on the RAA were held in Tokyo on November 29-30, 2023. It was led by the Department of National Defense (DND) along with the other delegations from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

A virtual line-by-line reading of the RAA main text, the Agreed Minutes, and two records of discussions were held on June 11.

The Philippines and Japan will mark 68 years of normalized relations on July 23. The two countries have been strategic partners since 2011. Japan is one of the Philippines’ four Strategic Partners with 264 bilateral agreements.

In 2023, Japan ranked as the Philippines’ second largest trading partner, with total trade amounting to $20.71 billion. In the same year, 305,580 Japanese tourists arrived in the Philippines, a figure higher than the 99,557 tourist arrivals recorded in 2022.

Japan serves as the second home to an estimated 314,428 Filipinos.